BTS What’s New ~ Season 7 Part 2, Where Are You? Season 8, Prequel & More

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Cover Art: Jamie and Mandy, by Vera Adxer

Hi there. It’s been a minute, as they say. 

Here are some bits and bobs on the latest in the Outlander world…

I think all of us are ready for Outlander Season 7 Part 2 to be released, aren’t we? But we still don’t have a release date, as far as I know. Starz published this teaser at the end of last summer, and there are many articles saying it will come out in Early 2024, but no date yet. 

The closest thing to a release date I could find was “…between January and April 2024,” from The Economic Times, which is a publication out of India. Will there be a Season 7, Part 2 press tour? I’m thinking not, as we are nearing the end of February, and filming for Season 8 may be starting next month (according to Sam).

Sam did an interview with Graham Norton (my fave), published on Dec 10 of last year, and in the below excerpt, said that Outlander (in its totality) will wrap by the end of 2024, probably around October. He also said that they will begin shooting Season 8 in the beginning of the spring of 2024, so I interpret that as March(ish). Sam said he did costume fittings in December for Season 8 and became emotional when he realized this will be his last time to ever do Outlander costume fittings. The end of an era 😢.

Sam confirms that Season 8 starts shooting at the beginning of spring 2024 and will wrap around October
byu/thepacksvrvives inOutlander

Sam mentions that Season 8 will be ten episodes, which gosh, I’m not sure how they will manage that, but I’m guessing priority will be given to wrapping up the story vs including all of Book 8 (Written In My Own Heart’s Blood or MOBY). I hope they’ll leave enough of an opening for the adaptation to continue someday, picking up where Season 8 leaves off. Heck, maybe it’ll be a later in life project for Matt, Maril, Sam and Cait! 🤗

We’ve had some announcements about the Starz show adaptation of the (as yet unnamed in book format) prequel, which Diana is writing now. The show is called Outlander: Blood of My Blood . Plans for the new show were first announced last summer; it will be the story of Jamie’s parents, Ellen and Brian, and it turns out, Claire’s parents’ story will also be part of the “collaboration.” I’ve included a quote by Diana, addressing this major difference between the book and show, below.

Filming of Outlander: Blood of My Blood started on January 22nd, and it looks like they may have started the story in Castle Leoch?? Jamie Payne is directing. He is a favorite director from some episodes in the later Outlander seasons.

Starz has announced casting for the show: Ellen MacKenzie is being played by Harriet Slater, and Brian Fraser is played by Jamie Roy. (Some Outlander Effect here – as you guys know – Jamie Fraser uses the alias of “Jamie Roy,” for anything associated with his smuggling business).

These two look pretty perfect – a ginger, AND I think Harriet resembles Sophie somewhat. 

Sophie as Bree, Season 2, Outlander

 Jamie Roy (as Brian) is verra handsome with dark features and Sam’s high forehead, and a similar hairline. The Fraser nose must have skipped his generation? 😁

Sam as Jamie, on his wedding night, Season 1, Outlander

Hermoine Corfield is playing Claire’s mother, Julia Moriston, and Jeremy Irvine is playing Claire’s dad, Henry Beauchamp – both of whom we know very little about from the books. 

Let’s see… I think I can buy them as her parents!

Cait as Claire in Season 1, Outlander

On her Facebook page, Diana responded to an outcry by some fans about the inclusion of Claire’s parents in the Prequel:

“Well, I’m happy to see that people are excited about the new Prequel show (aka “Blood of my Blood”), though I gather a number of people feel uneasy about the inclusion of a storyline about Claire’s parents, not written by me. So, this is how I see it:
 
In essence, the Prequel show is a collaboration, rather than a straight adaptation. I truly don’t have either time or interest in writing about Claire’s parents (there’s a _reason_ why they die early in the books), but fans have been (…looking for a better term than “yammering”, which seems impolite…), um, politely but urgently requesting more story about Claire’s parents. I’m not going to write it, and Matt wants to. So–given the rather odd admixture of this show already, I thought why not? Matt’s a good writer and he plainly loves these characters–and whatever he writes for the show is not likely to affect anything in the book (not saying I might not borrow a good line, if I hear one…<g>…with permission, of course…), so I see no real problem to his doing that storyline. (Not to say that it might not become more complex, later, but we’ll be discussing things throughout the production and melding ideas as we go.).” (See link to Source below).
 

Tony Curran, whom you may know from Outlaw King… (far right) has been cast in the Prequel, to play Lord Lovat, Brian Fraser’s Da.

Photo: Steven Cree, Chris Pine, and Tony Curran, in Outlaw King, 2018

(Duncan LaCroix was also in Outlaw King)

 

Photo: Duncan et al, Outlaw King, 2018

I personally think Tony could be brothers with Àdhamh O’Broin, the previous Gaelic consultant on the show from 2013-2019, Seasons I-V. 

   

Photos: Tony – Getty Images. TV Fanatic; Àdhamh, linked in

Gillebride MacMillan as Gwyllyn the Bard, Season 1, Outlander

Gaelic singer, songwriter and teacher Gillebride MacMillan took over the role of Gaelic Consultant after Àdhamh, picking that up in Season 6, forward. Gil also played Gwyllyn the Bard in Season 1, is a native Gaelic speaker, and teaches Gaelic at the University of Glasgow. Many of you will also know that Diana created a character in Gillebride’s honor in her 9th book, Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone; BEES SPOILER: his character appears in the story around the time of Amy McCallum’s untimely and grizzly (ahem) death.

One possible continuity issue I see with Tony playing Lord Lovat, is that Clive Russell, who played The Old Fox in Season 1, is a towering 6’6″ tall, and a very big man, where Tony is 6’0″ tall.

Photo: Clive Russell at Scot Con with fans, 2016

I’m sure it’ll all work out though. 

Diana is always writing, as you know. Right now she’s working on at least three novels (that I know of), none of which have been titled, (or she has not yet shared their titles): the Master Raymond story, Book 10, and the prequel. We occasionally get sneak peeks into these works when she posts excerpts. These are copyrighted, and therefore I won’t share them here (until I get permission). But she often posts these on her Facebook page. If you are not following, I suggest you do!

In the Where Are They Now department…

Ed Speleers AND Alex Vlahos are appearing in an upcoming Netflix Rom-Com with Lindsay Lohan called Irish Wish. From the write up, it seems that one of them will play her mad crush for whom she is a ghost writer, and one will play her true soulmate. Anyone care to guess who plays whom? 

Jez Butterworth, partner of Laura Donnelly and amazing playwright, has written another apparently stellar play: The Hills of California, which stars Laura. Among other plays, he previously wrote The Ferryman, which also starred Laura, and was a smashing success. The Hills of California is playing in the West End of London at Harold Pinter Theatre. It opened on January 27th. If you live in Europe, go see this play, and let me know how you liked it please! More about The Hills of California project here. 

Photo by Mark Douet; Variety Magazine (link below)

 

Sending you my best. x Courtney

 

Source: OutlanderBTS What’s New…

Source: Deadline

Source: OutlanderBTS Deeper Dive: The Old Fox – Clive Russell

Source: TV Fanatic

Source: Diana Gabaldon Facebook page

Source: The Economic Times

Source: PioneerCafe.net

Source: r/Outlander on reddit.com

Source: Netflix Tudum

Source: Variety Magazine

Source: Independent

Source: University of Glasgow

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25 comments on “BTS What’s New ~ Season 7 Part 2, Where Are You? Season 8, Prequel & More”

  2. So happy to read your words! Do you think Uncle Lamb will be in Blood of My Blood? Hope all is well in this new year! ❤️

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  3. ## Comment SPAM Protection: Shield – provided by WP Support Plan marked this comment as “Pending Moderation”. Reason: Human SPAM filter found “iphone1” in “user_agent” ##
    It’s great to hear from you again! I’ve really missed you ladies and your wonderful thoughts about the episodes and other comments about all Outlander things!! ❤️

    Reply

  4. ## Comment SPAM Protection: Shield – provided by WP Support Plan marked this comment as “Pending Moderation”. Reason: Human SPAM filter found “iphone1” in “user_agent” ##
    It’s great to hear from you again! I’ve really missed you ladies and your wonderful thoughts about the episodes and other comments about all Outlander things!! ❤️

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  6. So great to read something written by you. I really miss your four-woman critiques. By the way, the height discrepancy for Lord Lovett is only in the show. In the books, he was short and squat. It always bugged me that they cast someone taller than Sam to play him.

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  8. Good to hear from you again Courtney! May 2024 be a good one for you and yours. 🥰 As for s7/2… we in Scotland(and the rest) are wondering if we’ll even get it here legally now Lionsgate have dumped the UK…. 🤷‍♀️

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    • Hi Jude! Thank you so much and same to you and yours 🙏.

      I did hear about that. My understanding is that the current CEO was attempting to compete with Netflix et al across the globe by making new seasons of Outlander only available on the Starz platform. He felt the prior CEO undermined this goal by making Outlander available on Netflix. While his approach was ambitious, I think it was unrealistic and that seems to have been the way things have played out. My guess (my hope) is that they will elect to release new seasons (or parts of seasons on Netflix or on another streaming platforms in countries other than the US. Chris Albrecht’s decision to release it on Netflix increased the viewership immensely, but I think Chris knew that Starz would never be Netflix. I’m trying to remember what you guys watched it on for the early seasons – do you remember? Perhaps it’ll go back to that channel? Or they’ll just release it on Netflix in other countries.

      Reply

  9. First off, great to hear from you, Courtney. You have been missed. Hope your health is continuing to improve. I have been scouring the web every day for news of 7b. There hasn’t been much buzz about LandCon in Paris in April, but their website says that it is sold out. It shows 12 cast members attending (but not Cait). I’d be very surprised if we get a firm release date before then. On another note, I just watched Tony Curran in Young James Herriott mini-series. He played a very nice man. It’ll be interesting seeing him in his role as Lovat.

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    • Hi MG. Thank you. My health is continuing to improve and I am soooo grateful.

      Good point about LandCon – that’s been used in previous years as “an official Starz” convention. I am guessing they may make the announcement before or at that con? Maybe that will serve as the mid season press tour? If filming is back on in March – it’ll be easy to pop over to Paris for Landcon – but I doubt they’ll come to the US. I guess we shall see.

      Reply

  10. Courtney, it was such a treat to read your Outlander piece today. To quote my favorite fictional TV Scot, “it was as if I stepped outside on a cloudy day, and suddenly the sun came out!” May that sun keep shining on you, and for you. Miss those great conversations and each of you lasses.

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  11. Hi Courtney, lovely to read this latest newsletter from Outlander BTS.
    I only have just seen it on X as someone had reposted it…for some reason I didn’t get it via email that I usually do?🤔
    I so want to go and see Laura Donnelly in the West End… but the price of the tickets are so expensive.😳. could go cheap for a restricted view … but I would rather SEE the play than craning my neck round a pillor 🙄
    Wondering why all the silence from Starz about S7b?? All the promotion for BOMB and nothing about the show we so want to see??

    Hope you are continuing to get well….🥰
    Any chance of you four lovely ladies coming back to the screen 🤪??

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    • Hi Susie – I wonder why you didn’t get the email… check your spam folder and if it’s not there, then maybe just subscribe again? Sorry about that!

      No – craning around a pillar doesn’t sound very gratifying!! How expensive are they??

      Oh Starz will be Starz. They’ve never quite had their finger on the pulse of the fanbase in my opinion. I think maybe they’re taking the opportunity to promote BOMB 😁 while Outlander fans are starving for info about 7B – not an unwise approach from a marketing standpoint. I’m guessing it’ll be out in April sometime though.

      I am doing better, thank you. My family has had a rough go, so just getting everyone back to full health and life.

      As for the lassies – I don’t have an answer yet. I’ll keep you guys posted as I know. xo

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  12. Hey you! Grand to see your lovely words and thoughts. I am very fortunate to have tickets to see The Hills of California on Friday March 8th in London. Will send thoughts out afterward. Reviews have been very strong for all the actors. A few feel text is weaker than Ferryman and Jerusalem.

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    • Hi Lady V!

      Oh you are so lucky (which ottocorrect turned to kinky – so – glad I caught that!). I hope you will let us know your thoughts! Enjoy your time! xo

      Reply

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